Sammanfattning :
This thesis discusses how to enhance the public discussion of moral and political questions. Enhancing public ‘deliberation’ is desirable since it provides citizens with influence, it enables coming to an understanding, and it ensures legitimacy. LÄS MER

Sammanfattning :
Resource allocation in publicly funded healthcare systems is inevitably linked with priority setting between different patient groups and between different service areas, so-called meso level priorities. Behind every priority-setting decision (investments, reallocating or rationing), are values affecting both the content of the decisions and how the decisions are made. LÄS MER

Sammanfattning :
Democracy today faces challenges in the form of declining levels of electoral participation, dwindling membership in and attachment to political parties, decreasing involvement in established non-governmental organisations and diminishing citizen trust in politicians, political institutions and systems. This study elucidates the democratic status of the Swedish formal political system through an analysis of the decision-making process related to the first power transmission link between Sweden and Poland. LÄS MER

Sammanfattning :
In recent decades, the theory of deliberative democracy has encountered multiple challenges. In this thesis, I explore the prospects of a particular type of deliberative democratic institution – deliberative mini-publics – in three essays. LÄS MER

Sammanfattning :
What kind of public sphere is possible in the European Union? Against the backdrop of debates on the transformation of democracy beyond the nation-state, this study explores daily newspapers’ role in providing forums for transnational debate in the presumed absence of an overarching European collective identity. It uses empirical means to reconsider the question of the supposed co-constitutiveness of the public sphere and political community. LÄS MER